>From NEWSMAX.COM
http://www.newsmax.com/commentarchive.shtml?a=2000/9/11/201127
}}>Begin
Worrywarts, Black Helicopters and Trust
Diane Alden
September 12, 2000
Do the worrywarts overstate the case? Do the folks in the bars and cafes in
rural America fret about black helicopters or the U.N. camping out in national
parks merely to break the monotony? Does this fundamental mistrust of
government and the misuse of federal power have legitimacy? The answer may lie
in recent events.
No longer does the federal government merely arm the U.S. Marshals Service, the
Secret Service, the FBI, the Border Patrol, DEA, BATF and the military. Today
the IRS, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, EPA, the Forest Service and even the
Small Business Administration are carrying firearms.
In the deadly incidents of overreaction at Ruby Ridge and Waco, hardly a flak-
jacketed bureaucrat paid any meaningful price. Expanding the power of federal
agencies to use force against U.S. citizens means the possibilities of another
Ruby Ridge or Waco are increasing. Every state can cite instances in which
bureaucrats armed to the teeth are conducting military-style operations.
To the Founding Fathers, a federal police force was unthinkable, and individual
citizens were advised to keep and bear arms. Thomas Jefferson said, "No free
man shall ever be debarred the use of arms as a last resort to protect
themselves against tyranny of government."
Bureaucrats in Ninja Mode
The growing trend toward militarization of the federal bureaucracy and police
forces does not sit well with civil libertarians, who see that trend as
antithetical to what America is about. Instances of the use of violent force
against Americans are growing. Many times this use has nothing to do with
preventing violent or dangerous criminal activity. These days it may mean
raiding private property and homes in the name of the environment, or dealing
with crimes that could be handled by an accountant or one or two investigators.
But overreaction seems to have become the rule.
On Santa Clara Island in California in January of 1998, using the force of a
small army, the U.S. Park Service conducted a surprise raid on a nature camp,
employing the excuse that the camp's owner was robbing Chumash Indian graves.
The commando-style raid included rousting and handcuffing a 15-year-old girl
asleep in her cabin. The park rangers wore ski masks, carried machine guns and
kept the girl handcuffed for two hours. In actuality, the Park Service wasn't
after illegally obtained artifacts. Using forfeiture laws, they were after the
last bit of private property on Santa Cruz Island.
For years, the National Park Service had been attempting to obtain a privately
owned 6,500-acre ranch, which covers 10 percent of the island. The federal
government's stalking horse, the Nature Conservancy, owns the other 90 percent.
Similarly, one month after Ruby Ridge, Malibu millionaire Donald Scott was
gunned down in his home in an assault that included 14 federal, state and local
government agencies led by the National Park Service. Scott's alleged crime was
growing marijuana on his property, an assertion made by a paid drug informant.
No marijuana was ever found, but the government got control of the dead man's
land.
There are also thousands of incidents of intimidation, terror and confiscation
of property by the IRS. The political use of the IRS has been standard
operating procedure for quite some time. In recent memory the organizations on
its hit list are conservative, like the Christian Coalition and the Western
Journalism Center, to name a few, and this reeks of politicization. You won't
see the left-leaning Sierra Club on the IRS hit list, or any labor unions, for
that matter.
Countless cases of intimidation by the IRS against ordinary citizens would fill
the phone book of a small city. Yet even when Congress responds and asks for
accountability, it is merely to proffer a slap on the wrist and say, "Now, be
good boys and go play." Apparently Congress doesn't have a clue, it doesn't
care, or it is impotent.
The Nanny State Is Packing Heat
Under the congressional nose and in the name of efficiency, in 1994 the Justice
Department began to allow blanket deputizing of numerous agencies, and that
authority has been extended. NASA, departments of Labor, State, Transportation
and Veterans Affairs, and Social Security and Small Business administrations
have received permission for agents to carry weapons.
According to the General Accounting Office, the number of armed federal
bureaucrats is more than 80,000, but the specific number is unknown. The
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center produced 848 graduates in 1970. In
1998, the center turned out 25,077. This number does not include FBI agents
trained at the FBI center in Quantico, Virginia.
Incredibly, of the federal agencies with at least 500 armed officers, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has grown the most - 40 percent in 15 years.
Federal agents are trained and authorized to enforce over 3,000 criminal laws
that Congress has passed. In addition, they must now deal with hundreds of
thousands of regulations that carry criminal penalties. Thousands of
regulations have been placed on the books in the last 30 years that relate to
environmental or endangered species "crimes" or efforts to enforce a federal
"war" on tobacco and drugs.
Military forces have been enlisted in this "war" and serve in disparate places.
They are being used as a surrogate federal police agency that includes 10,000
military personnel stationed on the border between Mexico and the U.S., as well
as in Central and South America.
Some of them are coming back in body bags. Some are involved in shooting
civilians. But any way you slice it, the military is being used as police. This
has nothing to do with their primary function and it sets a profoundly
dangerous precedent for the Republic.
Speaks with Forked Tongue
Janet Reno recently replaced Defense Secretary William Cohen as head of a
combination military and government response team to deal with "national
emergencies."
Now, it may be prudent to prepare for terrorist activities on American soil,
but in recent years we have had more to fear from the federal agencies headed
by Janet Reno than we have from terrorists.
More and more frequently the Clinton administration has used these agencies as
SWAT teams against perceived "enemies" - like the Cuban community in Miami and
at Waco and Ruby Ridge. These agencies are barely deserving of any trust from
Americans concerned about the political use of their federal police agencies by
any executive of either political party. Between Ruby Ridge, Waco and Little
Havana, Justice Department guarantees that they will not trample on the Bill of
Rights ring hollow.
That the Justice Department and agencies such as FEMA will now have oversight
or input into the use of the military in emergencies should not persuade a
reasonably intelligent citizen that his government will do the right thing.
Past experience shows that trusting the government has cost American citizens
their lives, their fortunes and their honor. Just ask the various government
whistleblowers such as Kathleen Willey, Linda Tripp, Bill Johnston of the Waco
debacle, Marine Corps General Krulack, Major Scott Ritter, and all the men and
women of various government agencies from the Forest Service to the FBI who
have laid it on the line and paid the price.
Letters from America's Front Line
I get letters from government agents and the military sometimes, and some of
them should anger Americans. But Americans are numb, calloused and accepting of
the status quo. These letters complain of corruption and malfeasance and paint
a picture that America had better wake up and recognize as dangerous to our
continued good health as a nation.
These good people have had to put up with the corruption and inept policies of
the Clinton administration, and since they get little or no support from
Congress and the American people, they stay silent. The ones who really get fed
up get out of government service altogether and remain disgusted and bitter.
Many men and women in the military are saying that if Al Gore is elected the
NCOs will bolt and leave the U.S. without its strongest military functionaries.
The United States of America will be stuck with a bunch of sycophants and tush-
kissers better known as BBs, or Bill's Boys. Only this time they will be Al's
Boys. The rest will be undereducated, ignorant and undertrained, willing to
obey commands that in a better time and place and with better men and women
would have been considered unacceptable.
As one 23-year veteran of the Army related, "They would kick in their momma's
door and haul her off if they were told to do so. They are being taught urban
door-to-door tactics. Why? So they can fight whom? Don't count on them not to
fire on Americans if it comes to that." This letter was not unique and it was
one of many.
Therefore, the people who plan on voting for Al Gore need to consider what they
are doing. They are setting up their country for a continuation of destructive
policies both within and without the military and government agencies.
Congress would do well to find its courage and stop acting like the poor
relation begging for a crumb. Accepting its oversight responsibilities by
demanding cooperation from the executive branch would do a great deal to stop
the slide toward a police state.
Even congressional leaders like Dan Burton and Christopher Cox say the Clinton
Justice Department is so out of control it does not respond to Congress except
in a perfunctory fashion. By stonewalling efforts to obtain information on
Chinagate and other incidents of government corruption, it betrays its contempt
for Congress and the rule of law. Former Democratic Attorney General Griffin
Bell said that the next president would have to clean the Justice Department
from the top down. That is a corrupt institution.
The tendency to use commando-style military raids at all levels of police
operations is not a hopeful sign in a free country. But the American public has
been desensitized to such activities: one too many cop shows, one too many
movies, and once too often the thoughtless acceptance of kicking in the door
and rousting of Americans that glorifies police state tactics. It desensitizes
us and makes us blind, deaf and dumb to what is happening.
We used to be able to count on the police and the federal agencies to do a job.
But more and more often that job would be better suited to a Banana Republic or
the Russian night raids of the '30s.
A thorough housecleaning should be ordered before any of the alphabet agencies
is anywhere near ready to talk about how to use the military in an emergency.
FEMA, the IRS, the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife and other "benign"
agencies have obviously lost their job descriptions.
Part of their training should include a course on constitutional guarantees and
respect due the citizens of the United States. Congress should defang, defund,
deregulate, disarm and tame the 8,000-pound bureaucratic beast.
Additionally, until a couple of feds are thrown in the slammer, or made
accountable for their abusive and shameful actions, pathological mistrust of
government will continue. But given the Danforth report in regard to Waco, that
is not likely to happen. We don't have anyone without ties to the government-
business-academe complex, who is independent enough to do an honest job.
There are a few people, like former House counsel David Schippers, whose best-
selling book "Sellout" chronicles just what a corrupt and inept government we
have. Unfortunately, the mainstream press has chosen to ignore the book, and it
is left to the Internet news services such as NewsMax.com and others to promote
it.
Unless things change, the average guy in fly-over country will persist in
believing he sees U.N. troops in the park and a Fed behind every bush. The
powers that be need to wise up and pay attention to the fears that haunt
Americans. The fear of government is not baseless. Nor are those who worry
about their government's actions all deranged wackos.
The Founding Fathers had absolute distrust of unrestrained governmental power �
which is why they gave us the Bill of Rights.
------------------------------
Diane Alden is a research analyst with a background in political science and
economics. Her work has appeared in the Washington Times as well as
NewsMax.com, Etherzone, Enterstageright, American Partisan and many other
online publications. She also does occasional radio commentaries for Georgia
Radio Inc. Check out her new Web site, "The Alden Chronicles," at
www.aldenchronicles.com.
End<{{
A<>E<>R
Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational
tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the
State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate
repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the
"democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist
by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse
of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of
taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between
the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that
the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State
has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to
accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a
share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded
subjects.
[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard,
Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]]
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